Professional Resolutions

I’ve been known from time to time to create New Years’ Resolutions. I mean, who isn’t? I’ve created personal ones, family ones, and even some professional ones. I’ve never really understood why people create them—myself included. Everyone ends up breaking the resolutions, either intentionally or unintentionally. Some people create lofty goals for the new year: lose weight, go to the gym, go to church, etc. But after the first 2-3 weeks of the new year get underway, life takes over again. You start having to work late, kids’ schedules get the better part of your time, or you just get bored with the monotony of going to the gym. We’re all guilty of it, so why bother creating the resolutions at all?I started thinking about whether or not I wanted to create resolutions for this year. Not specific to any particular category or area of my life, but something that I wanted be better at. My life is pretty good if I look at the status quo. But there are always things I could do better. Since my wife and I have a personal/family website, I’ll post some of those goals over there, but what you’re probably more interested in on this site are my professional resolutions of 2014. The areas of my career that I want to do better.Well, without further stalling or ado, here are a few:

1. Spend more time writing. For the last few years, I’ve wanted to publish another journal article. I even started setting aside time during my work-week to write. Some time to journal about what I’ve been working on. I even started journaling right here on this site. But like all other resolutions, time got away from me. I don’t want to make a goal of having something published in 2014, because I know that will be thrown to the wayside too easily. But just to set aside some time to journal. No topics in mind, but something more coherent than weekly project updates. I have tons of topics to write about, it’s just a matter of doing it.
2. Take on a large, long-term project. That might seem a little beyond my control, but it really isn’t. I have a project in mind. Something I’ve been tinkering with for the last year or so, but I’ve never really made it my project. It’s always been a side thing that I tinkered with when I had time. It also sounds like a fairly vague goal, but that’s on purpose. Even though I have a project in mind, I’ve been waiting for approval of sorts for a while, so I’ve been hesitant to talk about specifics. If you read the post I wrote earlier this month, I talk a bit more about the project, even though it’s still not in great detail. I still haven’t gotten the green light yet, but I think that even if I’m not given the ability (permission) to devote all of my time to it, I’m going to make it a point to work on this project on a more long-term basis.

Those are really the top 2 professional goals that I have for 2014. I’ll keep you posted on my progress, hopefully more than just a weekly progress report (per #1 above). And hopefully I’ll be able to provide some specifics to the large project of which I speak in the near future.What are some 2014 resolutions you have for your professional life?